The Star Wars: The Old Republic Website has a trailer showing off the space combat in BioWare's upcoming Star Wars MMORPG. The clip shows a variety of ships doing combat in a variety of asteroid formations, but doesn't do much to refute the recent report that this will be "tunnel shooter" combat.

NKD wrote on Aug 19, 2010, 11:43:Not sure what strikes you as being "aimed at 12 year olds" about it.

Watch the video? It has all of the gameplay complexity of play dough.

Amen to that. They shouldn't have even bothered with this. However, I don't think they spent too much time on it. As they've said it's totally optional and sits outside the mechanics of the regular game.

Do it right or don't do it, the MMO market is not the place to make dumb little sub-arcade minigames when you are competing with WoW.

It's easy to get box sales these days. WoW has brought so many people into the MMO fold that there are a ton of people willing to try an MMO. That, combined with the BioWare name will ensure that box sales more than cover whatever they've invested into the game and make a tidy sum to boot.

You seriously believe box sales alone will cover their entire investment including marketing? You certainly have more faith in the Star Wars license than I do. Star Wars already has one failed MMO to tarnish its name with the playerbase and brand confusion from the 10 other titles that sit on store shelves.

Personally I'm all for it. It brings back memories of Rebel Assault and will help give a sense of scale to the game, as space combat is half of what Star Wars is famous for. Hopefully there will be a bit of depth - customisation of ships, strategies, tactics - and not simply be click-and-shoot, as you can't tell much from that trailer. And, being an MMO, there is always plenty of opportunity to develop any of the concepts that ship with the game.

The core gameplay still looks solid and the quests / story looks better than anything is an previous MMO. Personally it seems a whole lot more entertaining than sitting on a griffin as you travel from one island to another in WOW.

I'm pretty sure people would be pleased if it didn't appear to be a minigame aimed at 12 year olds.

Not sure what strikes you as being "aimed at 12 year olds" about it. I didn't see anything particular kid oriented there. Sure, it lacks complexity, but that's because this is an MMORPG, not a space sim. Hell I prefer this to the space crap they shovelled into SWG. At least this doesn't pretend to be X-Wing. Jump To Lightspeed tried to be X-Wing and failed with its generic waves of enemies.

I'm not expecting TIE Fighter here, in fact I'd rather they just devote the resources to making the actual game better because they have their work cut out for them.

Amen to that. They shouldn't have even bothered with this. However, I don't think they spent too much time on it. As they've said it's totally optional and sits outside the mechanics of the regular game.

Also the sales assumption comment is amusing, Starwars Galaxies didn't exactly set the world on fire. The Star Wars license alone is not enough to guarantee success and it's going to take a long term success to see any return on their rumored 120mil+ investment.

It's easy to get box sales these days. WoW has brought so many people into the MMO fold that there are a ton of people willing to try an MMO. That, combined with the BioWare name will ensure that box sales more than cover whatever they've invested into the game and make a tidy sum to boot.

But yes in the long term player retention is key. It remains to be seen if they can do it. I'm skeptical because they have not revealed any content or mechanic that might keep players around beyond the storyline of a character or two.

This isn't a black and white situation here. There are more possibilities than it only being a crappy arcade rail shooter OR an X-Wing flight sim.

It seems like most people (including myself) are just disappointed in how shallow the gameplay looks in that trailer. I'm not looking for sim-like depth, but certainly more depth than that sad display of gameplay footage. Start with taking the leash off for freedom of movement ffs. Weaksauce indeed.

Ant wrote on Aug 19, 2010, 10:12:I will stick with original X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance.

Um, good for you? If you were looking for a flight sim in a third person, character driven MMO you were sadly mistaken to begin with.

Again, people shouldn't expect a robust flight sim in this type of MMO, but we certainly should expect more than what they've shown us.

I'm pretty sure people would be pleased if it didn't appear to be a minigame aimed at 12 year olds. I'm not expecting TIE Fighter here, in fact I'd rather they just devote the resources to making the actual game better because they have their work cut out for them. Also the sales assumption comment is amusing, Starwars Galaxies didn't exactly set the world on fire. The Star Wars license alone is not enough to guarantee success and it's going to take a long term success to see any return on their rumored 120mil+ investment.

ibm wrote on Aug 19, 2010, 04:13:Is it really "way too demanding" to expect gameplay from 1997 to be available?

Yeah that makes a lot of fucking sense. There's no fighting game, FPS,or RTS either, and those were all available in or before 1997 too. If you want a series of shallow mini-games, go play Clone Wars Adventures and get your ass reamed out by SOE again.

They shouldn't have even implemented this. Waste of time trying to please people who can't be pleased, especially when their game is already going to sell like Chicken Nuggets in Detroit.

kxmode wrote on Aug 18, 2010, 21:40:I think it looks fun and I think you guys are way too demanding. The problem here is you don't want an MMO, you want a Xwing flight sim. You're measuring SW:TOR up to those standards. I want a Xwing flight sim just as much as you but you can't expect BioWare to shoehorn in a full blown flight sim into an MMO can you? That wouldn't be realistic. Besides we already saw what happened when that was tried with Jump to Lightspeed. That expansion was boring and not fun.

STOP MAKING SENSE.

Seriously, this was never going to be a freaking sim or even full-fledged space combat game. It's a small part of a massive MMO, not a game itself.

Agreed. Although I think they're taking the "theme park" concept a little too literally here; it doesn't really look like it fits in to an MMO. This seems like something that should be a $5-$10 downloadable game.

kxmode wrote on Aug 18, 2010, 21:40:I think it looks fun and I think you guys are way too demanding. The problem here is you don't want an MMO, you want a Xwing flight sim. You're measuring SW:TOR up to those standards. I want a Xwing flight sim just as much as you but you can't expect BioWare to shoehorn in a full blown flight sim into an MMO can you? That wouldn't be realistic. Besides we already saw what happened when that was tried with Jump to Lightspeed. That expansion was boring and not fun.

STOP MAKING SENSE.

Seriously, this was never going to be a freaking sim or even full-fledged space combat game. It's a small part of a massive MMO, not a game itself.

kxmode wrote on Aug 18, 2010, 21:40:I think it looks fun and I think you guys are way too demanding. The problem here is you don't want an MMO, you want a Xwing flight sim. You're measuring SW:TOR up to those standards. I want a Xwing flight sim just as much as you but you can't expect BioWare to shoehorn in a full blown flight sim into an MMO can you? That wouldn't be realistic. Besides we already saw what happened when that was tried with Jump to Lightspeed. That expansion was boring and not fun.

I think it's more that we don't want an MMO and X-Wing is just getting brought up because "gee whiz it's some space combat!"

I'd much prefer an actual KotOR3, myself. Never cared for X-Wing/TIE Fighter.

Gotta love all the fanboy comments, lol! Christ, what is it with those people? The devs could shit in a bowl and they'd still call it ice cream. Every subsequent trailer I see of this game leaves me more and more underwhelmed. This could be Bioware first epic failure.

Gee, and I would have thought being bought by EA would only make them better. LOL!

I think it looks fun and I think you guys are way too demanding. The problem here is you don't want an MMO, you want a Xwing flight sim. You're measuring SW:TOR up to those standards. I want a Xwing flight sim just as much as you but you can't expect BioWare to shoehorn in a full blown flight sim into an MMO can you? That wouldn't be realistic. Besides we already saw what happened when that was tried with Jump to Lightspeed. That expansion was boring and not fun.